Xpect Discounts to shutter all Connecticut stores within 12 months

‘Don’t want to do business in Connecticut anymore,’ according to East Haven official

Published 6:22 pm, Thursday, February 19, 2015

The parent company of XPect Discounts has told East Haven officials that the grocery chain will close all of its remaining Connecticut stores over the next 12 months.

Sal Brancati, East Haven’s director of administration and management, said officials of XPect Discount’s corporate parent, Parma, Ohio-based Marc Glassman Inc., told him recently they are closing all of the chain’s remaining locations in the state, in Danbury, Milford, East Haven and Cromwell. The East Haven store is located at 78 Frontage Road .

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but they told us that they don’t want to do business in Connecticut anymore,” Brancati said. Town officials are close to lining up a new tenant for the building, he said.

Brancati said XPect Discounts has been in East Haven for more than a decade.

Last month, the company notified Danbury officials of its plans to close the store on Newtown Road in the city by March 1. The Danbury News-Times reported that 84 people are losing their jobs a result of that closing.

Officials with Marc Glassman Inc. were not immediately available for comment on the reason for the closings or how many employees the company has in Connecticut.

XPect Discounts has been closing a number of its stores over the past several years.

The chain’s North Haven store, which was on Universal Drive, closed in July 2013, putting 67 people out of work. Before that, XPect closed its Derby location in April 2012, which put 58 people out of work.

Then, last March, the retailer closed the pharmacies at its Milford and Cromwell stores.

In addition to XPect Discounts, Marc Glassman Inc. also operates more than 50 discount stores that sell closeout merchandise and overstocked items in northeast Ohio under the name Marc’s.